If the encrypted search was turned on by default for searches performed from the Firefox search box, the number of “not provided” referrals would be increased by a tremendous amount, given the popularity fo the browser. Barry Schwartz at Search Engine Roundtable makes the point that they could easily add this to Chrome at some point as well. And why wouldn’t they, if they feel that this is the search experience that is best for users? Given all the privacy concerns that are always circulating around Google’s practices, this is one area, where they could make people feel easier, even if SEOs, webmasters and marketers aren’t huge fans.

There could be potential issues with Internet Explorer as well, if users set their default search to Google, which given Google’s share of the search market, it is highly likely that many will still do.

The point is, for those keeping up with their analytics, those Google referrals might even become more mysterious if encrypted search is expanded across the browser level, which it appears is about to happen with Firefox.